The Misconception of Happiness
by Maybe Honestly
Summary: Ginny feels that her relationship with Harry is going nowhere. If only there was someway to magically fix their relationship. Sadly, there was no charm for that. Will they be able work it out?


**Disclaimer: **The law requires me to state that I do not and never will own the rights to Harry Potter.

**Author's Note: **Second oneshot! Yay! I wrote this for the Quotes/Sentences Challenge on HPFC. I used the first quote. Thanks go to my fantastic betareader, CoverGirlInLove. She is fabulous! The title stems from my thoughts about the themes and ideas in the story. Please take the time to send me a review (they're better than cookies!).

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**The Misconception of Happiness**

Ginny sighed as she walked into Harry's apartment. He lived in a cute suburb on the outside of London. They had been dating for about four months now. After the battle they'd become friends again, but he didn't grow the balls to ask her out again until after she had succeeded in being signed with the Harpies and he had finished Auror training. They had both been worried that the other wasn't in love with them anymore, but with a small – ahem – huge push from Hermione, they realized that they wanted to be together again.

She loved him, she really did, but something about the whole relationship wasn't right. They knew each other's deepest secrets, yet, he was still treating it like they were in their first weeks of dating. She needed him to admit that he needed her and that he actually cared. She had already told him she loved him; he just wasn't committing.

The lack of a true connection was causing her to pull back from their relationship. She was spending more time training and less time with him. She hadn't even spent the night at his apartment yet, and that had nothing to do with Molly's wishes about her children marrying before living with their significant other. Hell, Ron and Hermione broke that rule all the time. She knew she had to do something soon or this relationship was going to crash and burn.

What was she going to do? What options did she have? She knew that Harry had a hard time admitting his feelings, but she needed something more. It wasn't fair on her to have to live in a constant state of confusion.

Harry opened his front door. "Hello?"

"Hey, Harry," Ginny replied from her place on his sofa.

He walked over and kissed her on her cheek which caused her to frown. He pulled back and noticed her expression. "What's wrong?"

She sighed again before replying simply. "This."

Harry looked puzzled. He thought everything was going great. Guaranteed they hadn't made out or even kissed much, but it was still great. He was with the best girl in the world and nothing was going to change that. Was it? He started to panic internally. He couldn't lose her; he thought she was happy. Wasn't she? He thought she loved him. Didn't she? What if everything was not what it seemed? What if she wanted to break up?

"Let me explain," Ginny started after Harry had been as silent as the grave for several moments. "I don't get where this is going. You don't seem invested in our relationship, almost like you don't even care if we work or not."

"How could you even think that, Gin? Of course, I want us to work. You've always been important to me and you're still important to me."

"Then why do you treat this like we don't even know each other! You don't even kiss me when you enter your own apartment. It's not like it's a privacy issue because we're all alone," Ginny argued. She needed them to have this out. She pushed away from the couch to stand.

"I don't treat you like that. I treat you like I always have!" Harry was confused. He was beginning to think that Ginny was going crazy. He was completely in the right.

"No you don't! We figured our shit out after I graduated and I assumed we'd be fine, but we aren't. If anything, it's almost worse than my first year at Hogwarts because it all seems so fake!"

"What are you talking about? We're together now which is better than what we can say for everything outside of those couple of weeks we dated at Hogwarts."

Harry stood so that he was across from Ginny. Both were slightly flushed in the face as their tempers rose. She couldn't believe that he was so ignorant of their troubles, and he couldn't believe that she was causing problems out of nothing.

"Harry, that's not true! We talk less than we did then, we kiss less than we did then, and it almost feels like you treat me like a sister or something!"

"Fine, if it's about that, I'll kiss you more, whatever. I don't care! I just don't get why you're lashing out over nothing!" Harry had started the conversation confused and concerned, but now he was just annoyed.

"If you don't care, why are we even together? It seems like you don't want to be near me, let alone _with_ me," Ginny answered, she was getting tired of this. She was beginning to think it wasn't worth it.

"If that's what you think, then okay, fine. I assumed you would understand that I like you and want to be with you, but if you don't," Harry trailed off, as much as his tone was filled with bitterness, he couldn't help that it felt like his world was ending.

"See! There! All you can say is that you like me! You're not willing to commit!" Ginny had finally managed to get to the heart of the problem: his lack of commitment.

"I'm in this relationship, and I want to be. Isn't that commitment enough?" Harry asked his voice falling to a whisper.

"But you don't seem to want to progress. We should be moving towards something at least."

"I do want to move towards something!" Harry said.

"Then why can't you tell me you love me?" Ginny asked her voice barely above a whisper.

"I just can't okay," Harry said as he turned away. Didn't she understand how hard this was for him? Loving someone, anyone, was something new. Having that person stick around was an even newer experience.

"No, it's not okay. I need some sort of reaffirmation that you care about me, that you want us to work, and that you want to be with me forever. I've told you I love you already – a couple of times. I need to hear it too."

"Ginny, I can't," Harry said. He was still turned away from her.

"I can't be with you if you can't give me some acknowledgement that we have a future and that you care." Ginny didn't want to end this, but she wasn't going to stay in a relationship that had nothing for her. She wanted Harry, but she wanted him to want her too, or at least say it.

"I don't want this to end."

"Then don't let it," Ginny said as she stepped closer to him, "Three words. Eight letters. Say it and I'm yours."

Harry slowly turned towards Ginny so that they were about a foot away from each other. He closed his eyes and squeezed them shut. For a moment, Ginny panicked thinking that he wasn't going to say it.

"Ginny, I," Harry stopped opened his eyes and gazed into her eyes, searching them for something, "I love you."

Ginny breathed a quiet sigh of relief, stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around his torso.

"I'm sorry that took me so long to say. It just scares me think that I could lose you like everyone else in my life, but I love you, I do," Harry whispered into her hair.

She could feel his body relax as he knew that the fight was over. "You won't lose me. And I love you too." Ginny did a little fist pump in her head. Their relationship was saved. He loved her and she loved him.

He pulled back and leaned in to kiss her. The kiss was quite like the one from his seventeenth birthday. Slowly the kiss progressed to the point where he was leading her over to the sofa.

"And I promise to kiss you more, even more than we did back at Hogwarts," Harry vowed with a smile.

Ginny giggled. "Sounds great, but how about instead of talking, you kiss me right now?"

Harry happily obliged.


End file.
